A drawing by Ingres

A drawing by Ingres

Every year, Paris celebrates drawing during the Salon du Dessin at the Palais de la Bourse, an international event that draws all the top collectors to the capital. Auction houses enrich the works on offer by proposing their best pieces. Here follows a selection like this marvellous portrait by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (€250,000/300,000), the star of a sale of paintings and drawings staged by the Piasa auction house. His pencil portraits represent one of the summits of the painter's work, particularly those of his friends and family. In his drawings the artist achieved the quintessence of his art, capturing the character of his subjects, the refinement of materials and the grace of a pose with incredible accuracy. Ingres was in Rome at the dawn of the 19th century, and made a speciality of painted portraits of French aristocrats who had settled in the Eternal City. However, when commissions became thinner on the ground after the defeat of 1814, Ingres turned to drawing. This portrait shows the delightful Jenny de Lavalette, a friend of Charles Thévenin, to whom the drawing is dedicated, with the date 1817. The artist was the director of the Villa Médicis from 1816 to 1823. The year in which he took up his duties, replacing Guillaume Guillon-Lethière, Ingres drew the portrait of his friend and mentor.

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Will the latest Salon do better than the previous ones? It's hard to say, especially in an economic downturn. But the Paris fair has succeeded in setting the bar ever higher over the years. In 2012, the professionals unanimously acclaimed a positive result, marked by a higher attendance rate, good sales, and the return of American buyers, while the presence of representatives from the top museums confirmed the excellence of the works on offer.

The first major retrospective of an auction room star since the 1980 show in New York, the Eileen Gray exhibition at the Centre Pompidou fulfils all its promises.

Greek billionaire George Economou has given a new dimension to his collection by creating an art centre, with a programme focused firmly on contemporary art

Clémence d’Ennery's passion inspired a collection of Far Eastern art that became a life's work, together with the mansion housing it. The Howard Greenberg collection is exposed to Paris (photography and digital video capital).